The invention concerns a centrifugal separator and a filter arrangement as it is used e.g. for filtering combustion air of an internal combustion engine. Moreover, a manufacturing process for centrifugal separators is disclosed.
Centrifugal separators, also named cyclone filters, cyclones or cyclone separators, serve for separating solid or liquid particles contained in fluids from the fluid. A fluid flowing into a centrifugal separator is guided such that centrifugal forces accelerate the particles that are to be separated from the fluid in a preferential direction so that the particles can be collected within the separator. For producing the centrifugal forces, guide vanes are usually used to generate a swirl within the separator housing.
Centrifugal separators can be used, for example, as air filters for combustion air for internal combustion engines. In particular in case of dust-laden environments in which in particular agricultural machines or construction machinery is used, cyclone filters or centrifugal separators have been proven to be suitable.
In order to increase the degree of separation of the dirt particles from air or fluid, multi-stage filter arrangements have been proposed also in the past. Downstream of a cyclone prefiltration, a further purifying filtering action by conventional filter media can be performed, for example. However, this entails increased manufacturing expenditure and additional limitations with regard to the installation situation of a corresponding filter arrangement. The throughput of appropriate centrifugal separators is increased, for example, in that several smaller separators are arranged in parallel inside a housing. In this connection, the individual premanufactured separating units should be attached fluid-tightly in or on the corresponding housing; this can lead to increased costs, particularly in case of mass-produced articles. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce in particular the manufacturing expenditure in case of air filters for internal combustion engines.